Panasonic has signed what could end up as the biggest enterprise Cloud Computing deal to date, with up to 300,000 users involved when a rollout of IBM's Cloud-based LotusLive suite of collaboration services is complete.
The electronics giant will adopt IBM's LotusLive.com services for web conferencing, file sharing, instant messaging and project management internally as well as for business social networking between employees, partners and suppliers. The intention, according to IBM is to enable Panasonic's workforce to communicate and collaborate more efficiently with its global network of customers, partners and suppliers through a Cloud-based community.
"LotusLive is an integral vehicle for our employees to truly function as a globally integrated enterprise," said Mitsuhiro Aoyama, vice president for the corporate information systems company at Panasonic. "It will allow us to work securely with our extended enterprise of Panasonic partners and customers as if they are all in the same location, bringing the promise of quicker, more efficient teamwork and commerce worldwide."
Panasonic will initially deploy the technology to support 100,000 staff, but this figure could potentially increase to 300,000 users, including the partners and suppliers. As part of the roll out, Panasonic employees will be migrated away from existing Microsoft Exchange and other on premise collaboration software to LotusLive.
Clash of titans
IBM is making hay about the move away from Microsoft technology, claiming it as a major validation of IBM's own Cloud offerings. "Panasonic would only make this strategic move with the assurance that their daily business workflow will be safeguarded from costly interruptions and intrusions as millions of existing LotusLive users know," saidSean Poulley, VP for IBM Cloud Collaboration.
Interestingly, Julia White, director of Exchange product management, used her blog to claim that it was not a major loss for Microsoft as less than four per cent of Panasonic's employees had been using Exchange. But for some commentators, the IBM v Microsoft knockout is in many respects the least interesting aspect of this deal.
“This is one of the largest commitments to cloud services by a global enterprise to date, and is a feather in the cap for IBM in its struggle with Microsoft for email and collaboration seats. However, in our opinion this is as much about delivering commodity services from the Cloud as it is about IBM's win over Microsoft,” commented Ian Brown of research house Ovum.
“The fact that Panasonic has gone for the IBM-hosted LotusLive service rather than an on-premise solution is as much about the opportunity to standardise global delivery of its collaboration platform as it is about replacing Exchange with Notes. By moving to a hosted solution, Panasonic cuts out prolonged and messy infrastructure upgrades and rollouts across the regions. Existing infrastructure can stay in place, while migrating mailboxes and archives to the IBM Cloud can begin almost immediately.”
But while Brown argues that others enterprises are likely to follow Panasonic's lead, he cautioned that there are factors to bear in mind, such as the need for service level agreements that will enable them to meet regulatory and compliance agreements. “Enterprises and public sector organisations are bound by an increasing number of regulations concerning the legal status, retention and safe-keeping of email. Collaboration services may be a utility, but organisations will need to be satisfied that Cloud-based solutions meet those requirements,” he noted.
“Enterprises that are considering Cloud-based alternatives to on-premise solutions, whether IBM LotusLive, Google Apps or hosted Exchange, will need to look to IT service providers to harden services, provide first-line support and offer enterprise-class SLAs, including retention of archive information and data in identifiable, auditable (onshore) locations. In LotusLive's case, IBM can support its own hardened services and offer enterprise-class SLAs through IBM Global Technology Services. In Google's case, Capgemini is one IT service provider working to provide robust, SLA-supported Apps-based services to enterprise customers, and a potential competitor to IBM LotusLive.
“The IBM/Panasonic deal demonstrates that at least one global enterprise believes the cloud can be a viable location for enterprise collaboration services and data. But organisations should recognise that the cloud is just another means of delivering an IT service. Maintaining and managing that service is where the real value lies, and that's what Panasonic is buying into - no doubt at a competitive price as part of IBM's quest to compete with Microsoft.”
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